Sunday, September 26, 2010

Wafa Sultan in California

I am intrigued by the frequency with which people fleeing repressive regimes for intellectual reasons, end up in California -- often Southern California. I thoroughly approve. Let them keep coming. Wafa Sultan strikes me as such a person. I discovered reference to her while reading about Multiculturalism's negative impact on Europe. Wikipedia describes her as follows:

"Sultan was born into a large traditional Muslim[1] family in Baniyas, Syria.[2][3][4] She immigrated to the United States in 1989, where she moved to Los Angeles, California and became a naturalized citizen. Sultan became notable after the September 11, 2001 attacks for her participation in Middle East political debates, with Arabic essays that were circulated widely, and for television appearances on Al Jazeera and CNN.

"On February 21, 2006, she took part in Al Jazeera's weekly 45-minute discussion program The Opposite Direction. She spoke from Los Angeles, arguing with host Faisal al-Qassem and with Ibrahim Al-Khouli about Samuel P. Huntington's Clash of Civilizations theory. A six minute composite video of her remarks was subtitled and widely circulated by MEMRI on blogs and through e-mail; The New York Times estimated that it has been seen at least one million times.[1] In this video she criticised Muslims for treating non-Muslims differently, and for not recognizing the accomplishments of Jewish and other members of non-Muslim society while using their wealth and technology. The video was the most discussed video of all time with over 260,000 comments on the video-sharing website YouTube[5]

"Sultan's latest book, A God Who Hates: The Courageous Woman Who Inflamed the Muslim World Speaks Out Against the Evils of Islam, was released on October 13, 2009. [6]

"Sultan describes her thesis as witnessing "a battle between modernity and barbarism which Islam will lose". It has brought her telephone threats,[1] but also praise from reformers. Her comments, especially a pointed criticism that "no Jew has blown himself up in a German restaurant", brought her an invitation to Jerusalem by the American Jewish Congress.

"Sultan believes that "The trouble with Islam is deeply rooted in its teachings. Islam is not only a religion. Islam [is] also a political ideology that preaches violence and applies its agenda by force."[7] In a discussion with Ahmad bin Muhammad, she said: "It was these teachings that distorted this terrorist and killed his humanity".[8] Sultan stated that she was shocked into secularism by the 1979 atrocities committed by Islamic extremists of the Muslim Brotherhood against innocent Syrians, including her witnessing while she was a medical student of the machine-gun assassination of her professor, Yusef al Yusef,[9] an ophthalmologist from the University of Aleppo renowned beyond Syria. "They shot hundreds of bullets into him, shouting, 'God is great!' " she said. "At that point, I lost my trust in their god and began to question all our teachings. It was the turning point of my life, and it has led me to this present point. I had to leave. I had to look for another god."[10]

Because of my willingness to take Enoch Powell at face value, a British Lady provided me with some Leftist responses to him. I did not find them convincing. I searched a bit further on YouTube and found Multiculturalism and Islamification in Britain -- Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnJcsQYZEGU&feature=fvw I found it too depressing to watch all the way -- and of course I didn't watch Part 2 and don't know if there are subsequent parts. This video does present the dangers I believe will confront every European nation that continues with high rates of immigration accompanied by no means to accomplish integration. However, I couldn't tell from this video whether I was watching prevailing phenomena or isolated incidents. Surely these phenomena can't be quite all encompassing quite yet or Britain wouldn't be able to function as a nation.

After abandoning "Multicultralism and Islamification in Britain" I found Wafa Sultan -- a voice of reason and encouragement. She is convinced that Western secular society will win out over Islam. Eventually, enough light will be allowed to shine on Islam that it will be exposed as the barbaric religion that it is. When I read or hear of someone condemning the Koran as presenting a doctrine of hate, I continue to consider it possible that some of the more vicious doctrines might be viewed by Moderates through a filter of amelioration. Nothing in the Koran permits such a view, but I am aware of times in Islamic history when Islamist-type belief and behavior was not the norm. Perhaps something like that can be returned to. I noticed that at one point Wafa Sultan didn't exclude such a possibility, but at other times she spoke as though there was no hope for Islam.

Someone challenged me about my being a Christian but still favoring a Secular Society. This is a murky area I will admit. In Wafa Sultan's case when she turned from Islam to Secularism, she was giving up religion entirely. In my case I mean the sort of secularism that doesn't impose a religion but allows individuals to believe whatever they like. I am a Christian and do not believe our secular western societies have anything inherent in them that precludes its people from practicing religion. Obviously forceful Muslims throughout Europe are forcing their Sharia-type religion on the rest of society as much as the can. I oppose that. I want society to remain secular. I don't want Muslims to win out and turn Secular Western society into Sharia-Law. I don't want to be forced to be a Muslim.